Anyone using these channels should take special care, both by reading a site's security policies and not passing on sensitive information, such as their date of birth or home address, to people they do not know, he said.

Checks for staying safe online

• Green address bar: this signifies that this site has undergone extensive identity authentication so that you can be confident it is the site it claims to be

• Trust marks: popular trust marks such as logos can indicate important things about an online business.

• Check the URL: look out for sites that do not contain a company's name immediately before the .com or relevant suffix.

• Does it look genuine? If a website seems poorly built or programmed and does not contain any verifiable security information, it may be a fake.

• Spell check: Be aware of sites with obvious and abundant typographical errors; many phishing and spoofing websites originate in foreign countries.

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